


Remember the Smile (that tore you apart)

by VenueWings



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Anxiety Attacks, Dark Character, Drugs, Hallucinations, Imprisonment, Kidnapping, Manipulation, Manipulative Relationship, Mind Games, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Panic, Power Imbalance, Psychologists & Psychiatrists, Trust Issues, dark!Archie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 05:39:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4210017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenueWings/pseuds/VenueWings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the OUAT Kink Meme Prompt: I just want Dark!Archie. The guy has to have a dark side. He does seem to like drinking (drinking heavy stuff at MM's after-jail party, drinking after fucking it up during his episode...), so anon can go from there. Any pairing is acceptable. </p>
<p>Basically Archie abusing his position as the psychologist, and further wrecking the people who are already on the verge of breaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember the Smile (that tore you apart)

Archie liked to think he was a good person, a kind person, one who always wanted to help others. He has been on the receiving end of enough derision, tasted despair, and so knew to play the humble caretaker of many struggling minds. There are just some minds that he couldn’t help looking into with clinical curiosity, minds he is tempted to peel back and dissect and see if he cannot make it into something else. 

Jefferson is the isolated millionaire that Archie’s peers would have loved to analyze. He is also delusional and suffered from many mind maladies. The man is wealthy, and Archie never asked him where the money came from, but also undeniably lonely. Jefferson does not exercise any influence in the city due to his isolation, but money was power, and so Archie keeps him close. He patiently waits for enough time to pass before he starts breaching their distance, one time resting a comforting hand on the Jefferson’s shoulder, another time a soft caress to the back of the other’s hand. Archie can read the surprise, the guilty hopes and longing clouding Jefferson’s eyes. The self-titled hatter is so starved of touch, so lonely, that even when the curse breaks Archie finds smug satisfaction in knowing that Jefferson will soon be his to control. 

Dr. Whale is a man in a respectable career with a not so respectable reputation. The doctor has also not been himself since recovering his memories, his psyche further disorienting when his successful experiment on Daniel ended with his arm being torn off. Eventually with Ruby’s encouragement Whale had sought for professional help, and Archie is there to smile and help the other doctor rebuild himself even as the psychiatrist planned to one day discredit the slick womanizer who once made Archie feel so inadequate. When a certain level of trust was established between them Archie prescribes the doctor pills seemingly for health, in reality designed to react negatively with Whale’s regular diet. 

Regina is an amazing prize, the evil queen who he once condemned as never being able to change. When she starts showing up at his office Archie is ready to sooth her worries and offer her assurances. Her mind is not as traumatized as Whale’s, but it is just as fractured, pieces she is struggling to keep together and acting so defensively as a response. He allows her to think that she needed to fundamentally change to get anyone to so much as tolerate her, let alone love her. He digs deep into her mind to make her relieve her worst memories, and plants pseudo-fake scenarios for her to have nightmares about. Nightmares she eventually started to discuss with him, nightmares that fuels his darker fantasies about her. 

Archie almost, almost manages to claim Mr. Gold as well, but the clever imp recognizes what he is doing. It is a tragic loss, Archie would have loved to have Gold lying on his couch. 

Subject A is the first to realize Archie may not have his best intentions at heart, perhaps because Jefferson’s mind goes in leaps and bounds that made the connections between Archie’s behavior and words. A conventional mind would think Archie a friend, Jefferson’s mind is anything but and he recognizes Archie for a threat at the most inopportune time – when the hatter is visiting Archie in his own home. It is part of Archie’s scheme that Jefferson will come to him even outside office hours, for isn’t that what friends do, visit each other at home? And it says something about Jefferson’s dependence, seeking out the psychiatrist in his own home. 

Jefferson’s mind is fascinating, Archie had always been interested in a mind that claimed two different lifetimes in a world so different from their own. Even when they regained their memories and Archie knows Jefferson isn’t mad in the way he first thought, it was clear the hatter’s mind had been unhinged for a long time. When things became too much for the hatter, Jefferson now knew to go to the psychiatrist. 

It is while Jefferson is lying on the couch with his eyes closed, Archie’s hands deceptively gentle as they massaged his temple, that the conversation somehow turned to Whale. Somehow, Jefferson had picked up on the fact that Archie’s kindness for the man, while seemingly normal for his character, could be interpreted as suspicious and Jefferson had suddenly realized how much more vulnerable he was in the psychiatrist’s clutches. 

“What’s wrong?” Archie asked when he suddenly felt Jefferson tense, before his patient sprang to his feet and turned around to face him with wide eyes. 

“No, you’re not helping him,” Jefferson’s mind is racing. “You’re destroying him, how…Victor is a doctor, he will recognize any threat to his health…no, he won’t, Victor as Whale did not always take the field of psychology seriously…” Jefferson is blabbing, his mind reeling as it recognized Archie not as a friend but potential threat. There’s a part of the hatter that is also genuinely concerned, a part that still remembered Victor Frankenstein as an ally long before the curse was enacted and the queen not yet evil. 

Madness blurred Jefferson's control over his limbs, focused instead on reviewing all his interactions with his psychiatrist and how sinister they had all suddenly become. Before he could run Archie’s hand clamped on his shoulder and shoved him back facedown on the couch. Jefferson automatically struggled, confident he could beat the mild mannered and gentle redhead, but Archie knows his own strength and moved his own weight accordingly. Jefferson is being straddled by his psychiatrist, effectively pinned down as the psychiatrist rummaged through the drawer beside them and withdrew something. Looking over his shoulder, Jefferson could see what the psychiatrist had in his hand, and his blood ran cold. 

“You prepared for this,” Jefferson could count on one hand the moments he had ever been truly terrified, he can’t believe this is one of them. 

“Only the best for you,” Archie purred in his ear, and the syringe in his hand easily goes into Jefferson’s vein. He hushed the man’s soft whimpers, and almost wanted to lick the despair from Jefferson’s face. Archie knows the hatter’s mind will continue to race up until the moment darkness claimed him, perhaps with regret about not seeing Paige and not figuring out Archie’ true personality until it was too late. 

Previously, Archie had debated about killing the man when the game was up, but the more he learned about Jefferson the more fascinated he had become. Therefore, the syringe he had prepared for Jefferson did not contain some fatal poison, only a drug strong enough to knock the hatter unconscious for several hours. After all, Archie had been prepared for keeping his subjects alive until their minds became ultimately boring, and Jefferson was so far from that. Especially since the man had figured out Archie so well ahead of schedule, before Archie’s rather through preparations were complete. It actually made Archie more interested. 

Jefferson would later awake with his hands chained behind him in the basement of Archie’s house, the redhead’s hand stroking his hair like a lover. Archie would smile at Jefferson’s futile rage and disbelief, would apologize in soft tones not for drugging him but by the poor facilities Jefferson was to be caged in.

“You caught me before I was ready, and I can’t just let you leave the house like this.” 

“Why am I still alive?” Jefferson’s mind is sharp, but nowhere a mind reader. “I’ll say you don’t have it in you, but I’m starting to think I don’t know you well enough to say that.” 

Archie smirked, “In time I think we can change that.” 

“Oh, that does NOT sound sinister at all, and we probably won’t have the time. My disappearance will raise questions, I do have a daughter, and those who remembered me will come around looking to see if I can somehow create a portal and transport us back to the Enchanted Forest.” 

“You’ve been isolated from the town long enough,” Archie reminded him, “many would think you were never brought here with us. Besides, even if Snow organizes a search party, even if Emma puts her amazing tracking skills to use, who will ever think to search my house of all places?” 

Frustration boiled over and Jefferson tries to attack him, but with a sharp rattle the chains abort the movement. Jefferson snarls and hisses like a cat, straining to break free of his restraints, and Archie’s deceptively kind smile makes him madder. 

"Please stop resisting, you'll only hurt yourself. Trust that I have every intention of keeping you safe and unharmed." Archie's voice is as sincere as ever, and he remains calm even as Jefferson raged at him. The imprisoned man howls and hurls insults, demanding to be released, growing only angrier as Archie's mild voice continues to tell him no. 

But Archie had underestimated the hatter’s determination, and Jefferson did almost escape and ended the ploy Archie had for Whale. 

By themselves the medication Whale was prescribed were harmless, but mixed with certain diets not always the case. Archie watched in silent delight as Whale’s raw agony grew and the man’s once clever mind began to spiral downwards. The blond became stressed, moody, sensitive to loud noises and slowly started to hallucinate. Naturally this meant more visits to the psychiatrist, Whale admitted to seeing Daniel at the corner of his vision and hearing the man’s threatening growls everywhere. 

Archie would have loved to invite Regina over to listen to Whale’s descriptions of a dangerous Daniel. He was sure he could use the material to defile Regina’s last memories of her former lover. 

Whale’s losing his sanity and the fall is fascinating to watch. The doctor’s well pressed suits began to wrinkle, his slicked back hair how falling in disarray and there are bags around his eyes. Those eyes are no longer confident, they look at Archie pleadingly as if begging the psychiatrist to save him, not knowing Archie’s offered hand is to push him down even further. Everyone tells Whale to take a vacation, see Archie more, follow whatever recommendations the former cricket had for him. 

Archie had plenty for him. 

The doctor hallucinated Daniel almost killing him a few more times before showing up at Archie’s house one night and suffering a mild psychotic breakdown. Archie holds the trembling man close and whispered a few soothing words before the hallucinations start again, and in his terror Whale struggles against him before lashing out. 

They’re both unharmed but Archie gets them to a hospital, just so it could be on record. At this point Whale is paranoid enough to refuse too intrusive scans and is offended at the implications that he needed them. The hospital staff, used to Whale being the well respected doctor, back down in the face of his temper. Archie returned home with nothing but a few scratches and bruises, feeling immensely satisfied at seeing how far the scientist had fallen. He opened the door and found Jefferson staring at him from the other side, the hatter having finally escaped his chains. 

It was a rough struggle, both men slamming into each other and trying to take control. Archie managed to throw Jefferson against the wall and roughly grabbed him by his hair. Jefferson howled, was cut off as Archie violently slammed the other’s head again and again just to make sure…

“Archie?” the voice is weak and frightened, more signs of their owner’s distress.

Jefferson slid down to the floor limply, knocked unconscious again. Archie turns to see the door opened, he had left it unlocked in the struggle, and Whale is standing there staring at the scene. He is staring at Jefferson’s body, however fogged Archie had twisted his mind Whale clearly recognized that there was a missing person in Archie’s house and that Archie had treated him less than kindly. Still, the man’s hesitant stance told Archie all he needed to know. 

“Victor,” voice calm and professional like everything was normal, “do you see Daniel again?” 

Doubt entered Whale’s eyes, he continued to stare at Jefferson’s limp body, “I’m…not sure…” 

“You’re staring off into space again,” Archie chided, as if Jefferson wasn’t there with them. “Why don’t you come in, you look awful.” 

Because no criminal would invite someone right into the scene of a crime when it was being committed, Archie could see Whale struggling to un-see Jefferson on the floor. Of course it was impossible, Jefferson was really lying there, but Whale’s fracturing mind was susceptible to any pieces Archie could try to slip in. 

“N-no, I think I need to go home, rest…” Whale’s voice faltered, but he finally looked away from the body. He flinched when Archie took a step forward, “please don’t.” 

Archie stopped, keeping his expression from hardening, “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m having trouble trying to distinguish what I’m seeing again,” Whale answered. “I really need to go home.” 

“I’ll escort you.” 

“No! It’s fine, really,” Whale tries a shaky smile, and Archie knew he had to prepare again. 

Whale lasted almost another day of hallucinations before Archie caught him going to the hospital lab with his prescribed medication. When Victor got a refresher course on what exactly was happening to his body, he naturally went to confront the psychiatrist. 

Either out of pride, or because Archie’s prescriptions had truly skewered Whale’s wits, the doctor went to confront his suspicious psychiatrist by himself. 

Like Jefferson, Subject B found himself facedown on the couch, Archie’s body on top of his as the psychiatrist’s surprisingly strong hands held him down. Whale fought against his captor, but drugs and sickness made him weak. Archie’s voice made his sweat cold and his skin crawl, the helplessness amplified as he realized what he had already seen the psychiatrist do. 

“Jefferson,” Whale panted, “he was really here, you took him, did you…?” 

“Of course not, I would never,” Archie could practically smell the fear from the other’s body. He continued, “Jefferson is a friend, I would never hurt him.” 

Whale knew then what his fate would be, at the corner of his eye he thought he saw Daniel there leering at him. Then there was a moment of intense pain as something smashed against his head, and he blacked out. 

Archie called the police with the story of a man breaking into his house, assuring Emma he was unharmed because Archie had managed to stop him. When Emma arrived to Archie's house, the redhead was pacing unhappily. He was genuinely upset that the trespasser turned out to be Dr. Whale, but considering the doctor’s fragile state of mind, Archie couldn't say he was surprised. Many knew that Whale's grip on sanity was slipping, those at the hospital would remember Whale’s last visit, there was really no need to look further into the issue. Whale woke up on the other side of the asylum doors. 

He hallucinated another attack by Daniel and had to be subdued, other doctors would find plenty of chemical imbalances in Whale’s mind and body. There would be some blame on Archie, but the psychiatrist would look so distraught that no one would believe he had prescribed the drugs with anything but the best intentions. 

Whale tried to tell them about Jefferson, but no one paid attention, if the former doctor could hallucinate a dead man why couldn’t he hallucinate Jefferson? The asylum staff would help him recover, despite the massive conflict of interest. Some of the orderlies seem to love handling him roughly, perhaps getting some petty revenge over whatever Whale had once done when he was in charge. 

It was degrading, outright humiliating, to be on the receiving end of invasive touches and condescending looks. Whale could do nothing to stop those, so he gritted his teeth and remained stubbornly silent at the attempts by the hospital therapists to get him to talk.

Silent he remained, until Archie came to visit his cell one night. Waking up to the sound of the psychiatrist’s footsteps just seconds before he appeared by the bars was so upsetting Whale could have screamed. Archie’s smile was kind as ever, but Whale could see the malevolence now. 

“Good evening, Victor,” Archie smiled. “So nice to see you again, and looking well.” 

Whale glared as hatefully as he could, still silent. Archie looked around, “Of course I understand that these facilities are not to your liking, but they are best now for your recovery. Nothing here that could hurt you or prolonged your condition, I am only sorry that I could not have discovered it sooner.” When Whale gave a disbelieving snort, and Archie sighed. “I know you won’t believe me, for you will be feeling paranoid, and sincerely believe that everyone who cares for you are out to get you. You will not understand how much it would pain your friends, pain me, to see you like this. Fragile, broken, and who knows how long you’ll remain this way. There are many who never recover, who would spend the rest of their lives convinced of the hallucinations they’ve suffered even when they’re physically well, you may never be the same again.” 

“I know what I saw,” Whale could not let this go. “I know Jefferson was in your house, probably the whole time he had been declared missing. He can’t be there willingly, judging by how you treat him.” 

Archie shook his head, sober, “Jefferson was never at my house, if needed I could let the police search but they won’t find anything. You only hallucinated him, just like you hallucinated Daniel stalking you. I was supposed to be your anchor to reality, but when you found out I could have contributed to your insanity you wanted to blame me.” 

“An anchor to reality,” Whale spat, “You completely failed at that.” 

Archie’s hurt look was disturbingly sincere, “Let me make it up, let me help you.” 

“No, don’t you dare show your face to me again.” To Whale’s dismay Archie stepped forward, and it took everything in the former doctor not to step back and create more distance. He knew he was being silly, the bars between them meant Archie could not hurt him but his body was already screaming at him to move, remembering too well the other man’s terrible strength. Trying not to shudder, Whale continued, “Go away.” 

It was amazing how genuine the regret in Archie’s voice sounded, “I truly am sorry, Victor, for failing you as a friend.” 

“You were never one,” Whale hissed, trying to inject as much venom as he could in his voice. Archie nodded sadly. 

“I was not a good friend, and perhaps that should not have been my role.” 

“It never should have been,” Whale really just wanted the redhead to leave. He was not going to deny that he viewed this whole thing as a betrayal, Whale had liked Archie, had thought Dr. Hopper was a good man. The whole time Archie was slowly peeling his mind apart, stripping everything away from him. 

“But you need me as your psychiatrist,” the soft words had Whale snapping back to attention. 

“What?!” 

“The hospital tells me you have been sullen and uncooperative, refusing to speak with anyone.” Archie’s explanation is delivered calmly, professionally. “You need to speak to someone about these issues, it can’t be good for you to bottle everything up, how else would we know if you’ve recovered? Your previous coworkers have asked my help, and I have accepted.” 

“No!” Whale stepped forward, realized he was bringing himself closer to a predator, and stopped. “No! I refuse, you can’t make me talk to you!” 

“I won’t need to make you talk, you will be willing do so,” Archie corrected him. “After all, I will be the only person who you can speak to, the only one who can decide whether you may leave or remain locked here.” 

“Do you truly think I’ve lost my mind?” Whale felt as if he was getting too well acquainted with the feeling of powerlessness, of his lack of control over anything in his life. “Do you think I would let you back in my head? I refuse! You’ll rip my mind apart and destroy what is left of me!”

The glint in Archie’s eyes bring furious tears to Whale’s, he felt sick and helpless, unable to do anything as his life fell apart around him. The man who had orchestrated this stood in triumph in front of him, untouchable and strong, a victor looking over the spoils of war. 

“I will be seeing you tomorrow, Victor.” 

“You can’t do this to me,” Whale knew he would beg if he thought it would work, “Not like this, not against my will.” 

“I’m a certified psychiatrist who finally got you talking, everyone will encourage me to continue seeing you.” 

“I refuse!” Whale is desperate for anything to save him, “I refuse to let you continue seeing me, I’ll call it harassing and stressful, more harmful to my condition than anything!” 

“Victor,” Archie’s voice is gentle and coaxing, “right now, there are some decisions that should be made by others, for your own sake.” 

“You can’t decide that for me…” Whale protested weakly. 

“Why are you so upset? Between the two of us I’ve always held the upper hand,” and the kind voice did nothing to take the sting out of the words. Before Whale could flinch Archie reached a hand past the bars and wiped the tears from the former doctor’s eyes. The touch made Whale shiver, he felt sick when he almost thought he saw tenderness in the bespectacled man’s expression. 

“Until I see you again,” Archie gracefully made his exit, leaving Whale there alone in his cell, his breathing ragged and not-Daniel watching him.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on November 2013


End file.
